The question before the court is whether California has “impermissibly burdened” the wider pork market with its strict rules and unlawfully regulated industry outside its borders. The law currently says that pork sold in the state of California needs to come from pigs whose mothers were raised with at least 24 square feet of space, which would permit the animals to turn around and lie down–which would exclude “gestation crates,” the confined metal enclosures that are common in the pork industry.
Biden seems to have sided with the two industry groups, the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation, who sued over the proposition. The groups claim that because most of the pork industry is concentrated outside California in the Midwest, the state is imposing undue restrictions on other states’ markets.
According to Fox Business, the DOJ believes that California “has regulated out-of-state activity in service on an interest that is not a legitimate basis for regulation under our federal system of sovereign States.”
The California rule, which is supported by Democrats via amicus briefs, is projected to add up to $350 million in new costs for producers, inevitably leading to higher consumer prices in a market already bloated by inflation. The Biden administration is urging the justices to side with the pork producers, who argue that the proposition would be a “wholesale change in how pork is raised and marketed in this country.”
They argue that the pork market often combines cuts of meat from various producers before the sale, making it likely that all pork in the country would have to meet California standards even if it is being sold in other states.
"This law has the potential to devastate small family farms across the nation through unnecessary and expensive renovations, and every family will ultimately pay for the law through higher food prices," said Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall in a media statement. “Farmers are dedicated to caring for their animals, but this misguided law inhibits efforts to provide them a safe environment. California is attempting to set the rules for the entire country."
Oral arguments are set to begin on October 11 at 10:00am.